Trivia

Some traffic analysts now contend a driver who has gone without sleep for 24 hours is as dangerous as a driver who is drunk by legal standard. Do you buy that? Neither do I. The sleepy driver is not so likely to irrational reckless courage.

Estimators think only one in 1,000 animals born in the sea live long enough to grow up.

In 1923, when alcoholic beverage sales were illegal, a Prohibition agent recorded the time it took him upon his arrival in various cities to buy liquor: New Orleans, 35 seconds. New York, 3 minutes 10 seconds. Washington, D.C., 2 hours 8 minutes.

Each generation of Americans over the past 75 years thinks it redefined the word “cool.” But that’s not quite right. In the 1920s, “cool” implied “clever.” In the 1930s, particularly to jazz musicians, it meant “yes,” “right,” “beautiful” and “well done.” Since the 1940s, it has meant all of the above plus “quiet down,” “stop fighting” and that spinoff “chill out.”

Aluminum producers rely pretty heavily on Arkansas. It turns out 90 percent of this country’s bauxite.

Sigmund Freud smoked 20 cigars a day, about.